


I can't wait to see the light

by lanyon



Series: Bad Boy Boogie [6]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-27
Updated: 2015-12-27
Packaged: 2018-05-09 20:20:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5553956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lanyon/pseuds/lanyon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During the lock-out, Gabriel goes to Switzerland and Kent tries to get hockey back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I can't wait to see the light

**Author's Note:**

  * For [idrilka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilka/gifts).



> +For Idril, for reasons.  
> +The best way I can think to describe Kent's decisions here is this: he’s so blinded by what he thinks he feels for Jack that he doesn’t think about what he does feel for Gabriel (who's clearly not his type at all...)  
> +Title from Bruno Mars, for reasons ( _Locked out of Heaven_ ).

NHL 2012/2013: Can the Aces repeat history?

Signs point to no. With the lock-out locked down and some moving and shaking in the lineup, there will be nothing predictable about the coming season, if it gets off the ground at all. Gabriel Charbonneau joins Roman Josi, Mark Streit and John Tavares at SC Bern, while Sebastian Volkov will get a taste of KHL hockey at HC Dynamo Moscow. 

Kent Parson remains in North America and is expected to join other NHL captains in a bid to negotiate some kind of settlement. Parson has looked particularly drawn over the past month. Loss of hockey is weighing on everyone.

♠

**Charbo ♠**

no pressure but bring back hockey ok? 

no pressure but try to take out as many nhl players as possible. 

like wine and dine them? seduce them? 

NO :| 

i mean go for their ankles 

i’ll work on the captains 

you hurt sidney i hurt you he’s a NATIONAL TREASURE 

now excuse me i gotta go seduce roman 

♠

Texting Charbo is easy, like talking to Charbo is easy. It may even be easier because Kent’s not distracted by his face. There’s not much overlap in the day when they’re awake at the same time so their text conversations are protracted. 

Texting Charbo is easier than texting Jack, not that Kent has really tried, since Samwell and the cup. Kent’s texted Bob more than he’s texted Jack in a _how-do-you-end-a-lock-out?_ kind of way. 

Texting Charbo and texting Bob is much easier than admitting he fucked up badly, this summer and it’ll be a miracle if Jack ever talks to him again.

♠

Gabriel likes Switzerland. He thinks maybe he needed the break. He thinks maybe being on a different continent might help him get over Kent. They text a lot and it’s two steps forward, one step back, when Gabriel gets a picture message of Kent miming tearing his hair out. He doesn’t envy him, having to work with Toews and Crosby. 

_You know you can’t catch Canadian, right?_ he texts.

 _I’d have gotten it a long time ago if you could_ is the near instantaneous reply. 

Right, of course. Zimmermann. Gabriel doesn’t really know what to say in response. 

_Gotta get to practice_ , he texts, because that’s safe. 

_Say hi to Josi for me. You’re not allowed move to Preds even if you hit it off okay?_

Gabriel laughs out loud and it’s a strangled, mangled humourless thing. He drops his phone into his bag and grabs his jacket and scarf to meet Ramps downstairs. He likes Ramps; he’s a bit older than Gabriel and has been playing for Bern for five years. He also thinks it’s hilarious to remind Gabriel not to drop the gloves, ever. 

Gabriel hasn’t felt so much like fighting when the rink is bigger and he’s having to skate harder in every shift. He’s usually exhausted after every game and that’s no bad thing. He’s playing second line but it’s different here, where they top-load the top lines and the lower lines fight to improve. 

_It’s exhausting_ he texts Kent, after a hard-fought game. 

_You can do it_ , Kent texts back, sometime during the night. _You are doing it. Your stats are really good._

Gabriel wants to text back, _Sounds like you’re proud of your rookie_ but he doesn’t. He just sends back a smiling emoticon. 

♠

Kent thinks maybe he hasn’t been fully inoculated against Canadians.

♠

Gabriel gets to go home for Christmas. It seems bizarre that, even though he’s living and working in Europe, it’s easier, more acceptable for him to return to Montreal than it was a year ago, when he was in Vegas. 

He buys a lot of chocolate for his mother and sister at the airport and he’s too excited to sleep on the plane from Munich to New York. He’s like a kid at, well, Christmas. 

_You shouldn’t have_ , says the text from Kent. _Really. You actually shouldn’t have - they’ll be impossible D:_

There’s a text from an unknown number. _Thank you for the gifts for the girls. We’ll send you a picture with their shirts on tomorrow. Bern is their new favorite team. Lots of love and Merry Christmas. Clark and Mary Parson._

Gabriel wriggles a little in his seat. He’s flying first class and it feels extravagant but Addison has told him that it’s not an unnecessary extravagance, when he has to fly back a few days after Christmas, and straight into hockey again. Even though he’s not tall, seats in economy are cramped and his shoulders are wide and apparently attractive to strangers who like to sleep, droolingly, on them.

Bash and Kent have drooled on his shoulders, too, in the Aces’ plane, but that’s almost endearing.

 _Have you brought hockey back yet?_ he texts Kent.

_Working on it, I promise. I miss you._

Gabriel’s staring at the text when another one comes straight through. _I miss all the guys. Hell, I miss JEFF WTF._

When the air steward comes by to see if Gabriel wants a drink, he nods and asks for a whiskey on the rocks. When the air steward, whose name is Erik, comes back, he asks Gabriel if he’d like anything else. 

The cabin is quiet, apart from that faint airline hum, and dim, apart from the flickering of tv screens. Erik is tall, with fair hair, and he’s German and Gabriel bites his lip.

“Where’s the restroom?” Gabriel asks, his voice huskier than usual, and it must be the air conditioning on the plane. He’s been speaking so much French lately that even he can hear how pronounced his accent is.

“Let me show you,” says Erik. 

Gabriel comes with Erik’s large, manicured hand wrapped around his cock and Erik’s perfect white teeth closed around a nipple. When he goes back to his seat, he can see there are plenty of texts on his phone but, instead of scrolling through them, he sleeps.

♠

 **Las Vegas Aces** @lasvegasaces • 1m  
Happy Christmas, Aces fans! Here’s hoping 2013 brings some NHL hockey! 

♠

Christmas is pretty great. Gabriel’s mother cooks an amazing dinner and maybe Gabriel went a little overboard with presents for her and Aurelie but they never let him buy them things, not since Gabriel paid off his mom’s mortgage and got a lawyer to make sure there was no way his father could touch the house. 

On Boxing Day, Gabriel’s mom goes to visit her sister and Aurelie is visiting friends and Gabriel gets to put his feet up and enjoy being at home, with the couch that still smells the same. He’s going to watch some games from last season but, instead, he ends up watching re-runs of _Murdoch Mysteries_ because he’s too lazy to find the remote. He’ll go skating later, he thinks, even though he finds he gets recognised a lot more around Montreal. 

He’s about to doze off when the doorbell rings. Figuring that his mom or Aurelie forgot their keys, he struggles up and, with the couch throw still wrapped around him, he opens the door.

“Kent.” He blinks. “Uhm.”

“Nice blanket,” says Kent. There’s snow in his hair. “Can I come in?”

“Oh, sure. Yeah. _Kent_.” Gabriel opens the door wider. “Go through to the kitchen. Second door on the right.”

Kent’s grinning a little madly and he’s got an armful of bags. “Presents for you and your family. Mostly from my mom because she and the girls got their bake on and, seriously. This shit is not on our foodplan but it’s so good.”

Gabriel follows Kent into the kitchen, feeling a bit naked in his boxers and blanket.

“D’you want coffee?”

“Yeah, that would be great.” Kent sets his gifts on the kitchen table and then turns around and hugs Gabriel so hard that he almost lifts Gabriel off the ground. “Good to see you, Charbo. Fuck, you're looking good. They're working you hard over there?” 

“Yeah, it's pretty tough but I like it.” Gabriel busies himself getting the coffee machine going and it's automatic to put in a splash of milk and half a teaspoon of sugar for Kent even though Kent always denies taking sugar. No one, least of all Charbo, believes he's sweet enough.

“So,” he says, and clears his throat before adjusting his blanket. “What brings you to Montreal?”

Kent looks a little shifty. “I was visiting a friend.”

Oh. Zimmermann. Of course.

♠

Kent doesn’t mean to spill his guts to Charbo. He genuinely thought, after the shit show at the Zimmermanns, which wasn’t really a shit show in the end, that he’d come over to the Charbonneaus, flirt a bit with Charbo’s mom and feel better about himself because Charbo always makes him feel better. It’s clearly some kind of innate talent. 

“I was visiting Zimms,” he says, before he can stop himself. “I kind of fucked up in the summer with the, uh, Stanley Cup.”

Charbo blinks. “Because you won it?” he asks, sounding dubious. He pours himself a glass of juice and regards Kent curiously.

“Because I brought it to him, at his college,” says Kent, hunching in on himself a little. “I didn’t - I didn’t think - “ It’s embarrassing to relate it, even with Charbo looking so sympathetic. “Basically, I didn’t think. So I came to Montreal to make things right.”

“Did you?” asks Charbo, so gently that Kent could cry, though he’s cried enough today. 

“I think, a little?” Kent clutches his coffee closer to his chest. “Zimms is talking to me again which is good, right?” He doesn’t mention that they shouted at each other, and then Kent clung to Jack and Jack stroked his hair in a stupidly awkward way, like they’d never touched each other before. He doesn’t mention the single, lingering kiss that tasted like tears. “I guess three years - well, a lot changes.”

“We all make mistakes,” says Charbo. “I’m sure neither of you meant to hurt each other.” He’s speaking so quietly now that Kent has to strain to hear him, though they’re in the same room. Kent can hear the sound of a television from another room.

“Are your family here?” he asks.

“No,” says Charbo. “They’re both out visiting.” He pushes his hair back from his eyes; it’s pretty long, though not as long as it was right after they won the cup. He looks at Kent earnestly. “Are you okay? I know you and Zimmermann are - are close.” 

Kent shrugs. “The closest,” he says because it’s definitely still true on some level. “We spent most of our teenage years playing together.”

“I remember,” says Charbo. “I was a couple of years behind you guys but I remember you, in the Q. You guys are pretty amazing.”

“I’d love to play with him again,” says Kent. He aims a lopsided smile at Charbo. “Though I guess we have to get hockey back, first.” 

“I was thinking of going skating later,” said Charbo. “If you’re interested in coming along? We can see how rusty you’re getting, Cap.”

“I don’t know.” Kent tilts his head. “Are you going like that?”

Charbo goes red and it’s so fucking delightful, Kent could almost forget how the rest of his day has gone. “I’ll get changed now,” says Charbo. “I’ve got spare skates, if you want.” 

Kent just nods, charmed at how flustered Charbo is. As he passes, Kent sticks out a hand and wraps his fingers around Charbo’s wrist. “Thanks,” he says. “Even if my little sisters are running around wearing Charbonneau shirts.”

Charbo laughs and it’s genuinely nice to hear; it’s nice to know that Kent is capable of making someone else smile. His eyes flicker down to Charbo’s mouth. He feels very still and very sober. 

The kiss is exceedingly gentle and Kent can tell himself that it’s gratitude, that he can come to see Gabriel Charbonneau and feel like a real, live boy, and there’s something electric in the kiss, for all that it is soft and sweet. He hears a soft _whumph_ as Charbo’s blanket slips to the ground and his hands find their way to Gabriel’s shoulders, which are so freaking huge, Kent wonders if the rumours about him being able to bench-press Beastly are true. He stops wondering, and thinking, after that because Charbo’s hands are at his hips and the kissing is so good that Kent feels guilty; he didn’t come to Montreal to feel good.

Charbo jerks back and bends quickly to pick up his blanket and then Kent can hear the front door open and the sound of high heels on a hard floor.

“Gabriel, _cher_ , please tell me you are not still watching television - oh, hello. _Kent_ , how lovely to see you.”

“I was in the neighbourhood, visiting friends,” says Kent. “I thought I’d stop by and see how Bern’s star wing is doing.” 

♠

Spotted in Montreal!

Las Vegas Aces captain, Kent Parson, seen skating with Gabriel Charbonneau at Bonsecours Basin. The pair stopped to sign autographs for kids, and delighted onlookers with an impromptu hockey display. 

There is hope that the lock-out will come to an end but Charbonneau, like many of the NHL’s top players, is returning to Europe to continue his season, while Parson remains in North America to join the NHLPA in negotiations.


End file.
